Sunday, April 19, 2009

Rustic Apple Tart

I made this rustic apple tart for dinner guest last night. This tart is a relatively quick easy dessert that's great for entertaining. It can be made several hours in advance. If you want to serve it warm just pop it into 325 degree oven for a few minutes. This recipe is really just a guide. You can use almost any fruit and spice combo that you want. Pears and plums are especially good in this tart.I use a little vodka in the crust. I find that the vodka makes the crust a little more flaky and tender. If you choose not to use the vodka, simply replace with water.I used Pink Lady apples for my tart. They are my favorite apple and in season now. They are a firm sweet-tart apple that hold up well in baking. Granny Smiths, Jonathan, Jonagold, Pippin, Gravenstein, Braeburn, and Fuji apples are other excellent sweet-tart choices.

I only got the one picture of this tart. There wasn't a crumb left after dinner.

How pretty! I love rustic desserts because they look so ready to be eaten. Not that a polished dessert does not look good enough to eat, but that tart sort of demands you take a big bite ... with ice cream. Very nice!

Delicious. When I heard you say vodka I thought you may have soaked the fruit in it for a while. That would probably be great too. But I really like the free form of this tart. It's rustic and very elegant.

This is a winner. Made it tonight with some Honeycrisps fresh from the orchard. The only vodka I had was some that I'm making vanilla extract with for Christmas. It's still a little raw for extract, but it was FANTASTIC in the crust.